In amongst a crazy weekend (for work not partying unfortunately) we went to Goldfrapp on Friday night for Dr Dave’s birthday. Alison Goldfrapp’s outfits were amazing and the classic tracks were suitably atmospheric, but her new stuff was just the wrong side of pop (the kylie side in you will) for my taste. All the girls seemed to enjoy themselves although I’m not sure about Dr D…

Another historic post coming up for a year ago… I was reminded to post this by our invitation to the fourth Wilton St ‘Deck the Halls’ Christmas party, without us as householders thsi year it will be a very different feeling!

Last years built on the successes of the previous events, upstairs did a marvelous job of decorating and it was packed to the gills again, with the fire and Chhay and Krista’s potent martinis keeping everybody suitably warm. In fact a number of peeps have expressed their disappointment that we won’t be hosting it again this year!

On the even of Bowlie 2 (which we won’t be attending alas) some more from the archives…

A remarkable restrained Les Savvy Fav played at the screening of the ATP Film in Glasgow last year. As local acts often featue heavily on the ATP roster (and indeed Belle and Sebastian starting the whole process with the original Bowlie weekender) expectations were high. The film was enetertaining but a little limited in its scope I felt, Warren Ellis was definitely the highlight.

With the film as a taster later last year we headed back down to Minehead for 10 Years of ATP. As all the acts had played ATP before there was less of a sense of discovery but some fantastic tunes nevertheless. We didn’t quite manage to tap into an appropriate level of hedonistic attitude either – the 10 hour bus ride sapping our energy for the weekend.

We have had old school friend ‘the Guru’ around to stay this week – it has been a fun few days. On Wednesday evening we popped in to the liquid ship to catch our old friend Jamie Flett play, along with his brother Andy (together they are the sometimes duo Feltt). They were both in sparkling form and their sound really suits the intimacy of the Ship, when they play with a bigger band I feel they lose some of their uniqueness.

Listening to Jamie play reminded me to post on his album launch, now over a year ago – at a busy evening at the Griffin’s Head. The support act torturing a guitar with a hairdryer was interesting but knocked the tone of the evening a little and it never really recovered, the album, and its electro remixed cousin Bright but Cold, that wa sonly distributed on the night are excellent little nuggets well worth a listen.

for our slightly more significant birthday’s last year cousin Claire & I hosted a masquerade Ceilidh in the ballroom of local bolthole Sloan’s. It was a great night, Chhay made a slection of her amazing cupcakes, there were some fantastic masks and the band were superb – particularly patient with our amateur ceilidh attempts.